KoopZilla in Temdant
Original Air date: October 19, 1989 (NETWORK: Syndication ) Where can I find this episode now?: (VHS) Super Mario Bros Super Show - Mario Meets Koopzilla (DVD) Super Mario Bros Super Show - Mario's Greatest Movie Moments EPISODE TYPE: Growth Ray (Potion) & Godzilla Situation (see Common Themes section for more on this category) WHAT IS KING KOOPA?: An anthro, furry, green reptilian (Koopa King to be exact) IS HE MACRO ORIGINALLY?: No HOW DID HE BECOME MACRO?: Eating too much Super Sushi WHAT DOES HE BECOME AFTER HE GREW?: Larger version of himself. IS GROWTH SHOWN?: Yes HOW MUCH OF BECOMING MACRO STAGES SHOWN?: All of the growth stages shown. MACRO NAME: (If different from regular sized name) Koopzilla QUOTE: "Now I can be the most terrible tyrant to ever trample a town. Koopzilla!!" SEX: Male LOCATIONS: Sayonara City MACRO SIZE (Approx or Average ): 300 feet NATURE: Chaotic Evil DESTRUCTION LEVEL DONE: High - laboratory building, cars, jets, many random buildings in his path SYNOPSIS OF EPISODE: Mario, Luigi, The Princess and Toad are all summoned to Sayonara City to see a new invention, Super Sushi. Before they can arrive at the lab, they are knocked down by a sudden quake that moves through the city. They soon are shocked to realize that it wasn't an Earthquake, it was a giant sized King Koopa who is now called Koopzilla. He slams a huge foot claw down at them causing the heroes to run . They head to the lab where the scientist who came up with Super Sushi is located avoiding the mega sized King Koopa for now. They meet up with Doctor T. Garden, the inventor of the Super Sushi that made King Koopa so big. He seems just as honored to meet Mario and Luigi and the doctor bumps heads with Mario. literally. When asked as to how Koopa got so huge, the doctor shows them on a video replay on his monitor. The monitor shows King Koopa stealing the Super Sushi right after the doctor had come up with a fresh batch and eating it all quickly. King Koopa instantly grew in size, bursting through the roof of the building and then some as he stomped off destroying all in his path. Mario and the gang realize they have to put a stop to it and quickly jump to action heading out to the streets. King Koopa meanwhile it taking care of things quite easily. He swats a row of attack planes causing them to be destroyed and blows away a whole row of tanks that dared to fire at him. Mario and Luigi head towards him on a small motorbike and start to taunt King Koopa. Koopa is less then pleased and starts to chase after Mario and Luigi as they speed away on the bike. They lead him down an alley where the Princess and Toad have a net over head waiting. As he approaches under it the net is released and Koopzilla is trapped under it. King Koopa just punches his way out of it destroying the net as Mario and the others quickly flee into a nearby sewer pot hole. Koopa quickly reaches a huge hand in trying to get them. Mario pulls a pipe off of the wall and uses it as a pin to stick at King Koopa's hand causing the giant to jump in pain slamming down a few blocks down. Koopzilla gets up and stomps off vowing to crush the whole town now. Mario and the gang head back to the lab where the doctor makes some more Super Sushi. Mario quickly mixes the Super Sushi with some pasta and starts to eat. Like King Koopa earlier, Mario grows in size and right through the roof of the building stomping out of the destroyed building heading towards Koopzilla. Koopa meanwhile is ripping a building in half seeming to have a great time causing destruction. Mario, now as big as Koopzilla jumps into action, locking his fists with Koopa's in the middle of the city. While the two of them battle it out, the doctor in a patched together building, tells Luigi, Princess and Toad that he now come up with the antidote for Super Sushi. The three of them head out onto the streets with a Hypodermic Needle filled with the antidote and move in on Koopzilla's position. They hit his ankle with the shot and Koopa starts to shrink back down in size. Koopa knowing that he is done for now as the giant Mario stomps towards him, quickly opens up a warp zone and escapes. Mario and the gang head back to the lab where the doctor thanks them for helping to save the city. Mario still hungry starts to nose through some of the doctors containers and eats something suddenly. The doctor tells him not to eat it but it's to late. It turns out to be a shrinking food this time and Mario shrinks down to only a few inches tall. Mario doesn't seem to mind as it just means he can eat more food this way. Everyone laughs as Mario starts to dig into a snack. REVIEW OF EPISODE: Another one that has to be honored as the best of the best. It's very hard to find an episode that truly has a little of everything, to make it a stand out and truly be a superb episode, but this does it quite well. The Super Mario cartoon, while a good idea overall, lacked in originality. Almost all of the episodes were just a spoof of something. The later shows of Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World were better in that they stayed more true to stories dealing with the situations we would find in the games, while this just seemed more like the Super Mario characters spoofing some well known TV show or Movie. In a way it's good that this was the case as we otherwise wouldn't have gotten an episode like this. For those that don't get what this is spoofing, this is a clear Godzilla spoof, with King Koopa in the role of the big G. Besides the fact that King Koopa was really big and destroying the city, this had really very little to do with a Godzilla story. Godzilla never ate something to grow and definitely didn't speak or talk about how much fun rampaging is. Of course for this pages use, all of that matters little as this is a great episode in many ways. We have great corny lines being flung back and forth by both sides. A great growth situation and scene with King Koopa becoming Koopzilla. And a spoof of King Kong vs Godzilla when Mario grows as well. High destruction and the fact that King Koopa seemed to be enjoying this a little to much, all make for some great story elements and a lot of fun as far as a monster on the loose situation go. What really makes this work is that King Koopa makes for the perfect giant monster on the loose. He is not at all afraid of the power he is about to get. He doesn't care if he destroys all in his path, in fact he seems to have a lot of fun doing just that. I was surprised they didn't give him fire breath as well if he truly wanted to be Godzilla. Not that he wasn't as destructive as Godzilla was in the movies. Every building he came to he seemed to either rip, push down or throw as if it were a minor inconvenience in his way. Another thing that actually makes this enjoyable is how silly it is. Sometimes the silly factor can really ruin a cartoon but this time it just made it more enjoyable. King Koopa had so many insults that were just silly at best that it sorta added to his character. Everything he said seemed to have this same letter rhyming thing going on "Teensy Tempora Tasters" "Little Linguini Lovers" "Pint -Sized Pests" to name a few of the insults that Koopzilla kept using against Mario and friends. They had really every element here. At one point even the army shows up to try and stop him and Koopa just blows some air over a bunch of tanks sending them crashing into the distance. Then we had what became a Godzilla vs some other monster battle type of situation when Mario himself becomes mega sized and takes on Koopa in the city. Mario doesn't beat him as well as you would think. Usually the good guy beats the bad giant pretty badly but it was pretty even until Luigi shrinks King Koopa with the needle of antidote. I like the fact that King Koopa actually was first seen already as Koopzilla. We learn later in a replay on a video in the lab that shows how Koopa became mega sized which was a great moment as well for any macro fan. It's very rare that we will have a situation like this start with the existing monster to be already be the monster, but it works great in this episode as it causes the heroes to quickly head to the place where the would be monster would have been created. Why King Koopa never follows them or destroys the lab before they get there is another story in itself. Of course there is no such thing as a perfect episode. This comes pretty close though for what it was. Great growth moments, great city situations, great macro elements and silly humor here and there. Even the animation isn't to bad. The only problem were a few continuity errors that I guess they just didn't care about or didn't think on. The biggest mistake was the fact that King Koopa only grew through the building moments before they arrived yet the building was in perfect shape when they get there. I can understand that it was rebuilt as it's supposed to be a Godzilla spoof where the city is always fine the next time the monster returns as if he never destroyed anything but if they are going to patch the building up after Mario out grew it, the same should have worked for after King Koopa did the same. Also the fact that the doctor would have a shrinking food as well at the end makes no sense, rather then to just be a funny sight gag to end the episode. The whole purpose of Super Sushi was to make someone stronger in size and power to take on the bad guys. Why would he invent something to make people weaker and shorter unless it was to be used on bad guys or something. I don't know. I just didn't get the whole thing. Why did he need an antidote to Super Sushi if he had shrinking food as well? Aren't both the same effect in a sense? Oh well you can go crazy trying to figure out logic in some situations. The bottom line is this episode is a lot of fun and a top choice for macro episodes. I think this is a fan favorite and for good reason. It really has something for everyone and a lot for a short episode as well. While it's debatable as to how close a Godzilla spoof this is , more then just some giant King Koopa destroying things, it works for what it was. Maybe one day we will learn why every insult of Koopa's has to have every word beginning with the same letter in a sentence. Maybe he was trying to show that he's not just some evil mindless monster, but knows poetry too? We may never find that out. But I suppose most who watch this, won't really be watching for that anyway. This is one to watch often and enjoy. As it's a rare find but a great classic that will be hard to outmatch any time soon. RATING: A+ MEMORABLE QUOTES AND MOMENTS IN EPISODE: (Mario and gang watch the replay of Koopa stealing the Super Sushi on a view screen. King Koopa is eating very messily and belching) Toad: "Boy. I knew that Koopa was a dirty rotten villain. But I had no idea he was such a pig!" Dr. T. Garden: "You crazy Koopa! You ate all my Super Sushi! Now you grow to much!!" King Koopa: "That's the idea chopsticks for brains! Rampaging reptiles!" (King Koopa's body starts to twitch and inflate in size) King Koopa: "It's working!!" (Koopa grows so big he out grows the whole building as he roars happily while pushing the destroyed building off of his body) King Koopa: "Now I'll be the most terrible tyrant to ever trample a town. Koopzilla!!!" **************** (A sudden quake causes Mario, Luigi, the Princess and Toad to fall off of a cart and look up in shock with Toad pointing upwards.) Toad: "It's not an Earthquake...It's Koopzilla!!!" Mario, Luigi and Princess: "Koopzilla!??" (A mega sized King Koopa looms behind buildings behind them laughing and growling) King Koopa: "Run you teensy tempora tasters. I'm gonna squish this city flatter then a tofu pancake!" ***************** (King Koopa swats at jet planes firing at him and blows away a row of tanks heading towards him as he leans against a building to rest) King Koopa: "Boy. Destroying a city isn't all fun and games. It's hard work!" ****************** (Koopzilla rips a building in half with his huge claws smiling) King Koopa: "I haven't had this big a blast since I set that fire in the Dynamite Factory!" ****************** (A giant Mario locks mitts with Koopzilla as they start to fight) Mario: "Tell me! How did you ever get so creepy, crummy and crabby!?" (The two grunt battling for position still in the middle of the city) King Koopa: "Years of practice!!" ******************* (Toad and Luigi carry a mega sized needle on their shoulders) Toad: "This is the second biggest hypodermic needle I have ever seen!" Luigi: "What was the biggest?" Toad: "My last flu shot!" FINAL NOTES: *Originally this episode had a song in it called "The Jolly Green Giant" by a group named the Kingsmen. When the show was later released on video the song was removed and replaced with an instrumental song with no words at all. The song appears when Koopzilla is busy taking on the military easily taking care of them before telling leaning against a building and stating that this it's not all fun and games being a monster. The song was most likely removed to avoid having to pay any royalties to the group that performed it, but the song isn't very good and seemed out of place. So it's not a bad thing that it was replaced really. *Former WWF wrestler, Lou Albano supplies the voice for Mario in the cartoon and actually played the character in a live action segment that would come before and follow every episode. The show itself only lasted one season but would be on the air for a few years to come in reruns. *This wouldn't be the only time King Koopa was giant sized. In the episode of "Mario and the Beanstalk" King Koopa takes on the role of the Giant in the Jack and the Beanstalk story. He is much larger then the Mario's but not as big as he was as Koopzilla. *In every episode of Super Mario Bros, King Koopa has always had one of his minions appear at some point. This is the only episode where King Koopa is solo with no help or assistance of any sort. *The name given of King Koopa in this cartoon is actually not accurate. In the game he is known as Bowser, King of the Koopa's. But the name Bowser is never used in the cartoon. Both names would be fitting but that is the same as the fact that Princess Toadstool's name is actually Peach yet that too was never used. It is not known if they didn't have the names for the characters prior to making the cartoon, legal reasons or just a flat mistake. But since the name of King Koopa is what is used, that is what the characters name is as far as this show goes. Errors-- Factual -- Mario ate the Super Sushi to grow in size, yet his clothing all grew in size with him, which is not possible to have happened since the growth enducing food was ingested, meaning only something part of his body naturally would have grown in size. Continuity -- When Mario and the gang arrive at the science lab building, it is in perfect shape. They watch a video showing King Koopa had just out grown the building on moments earlier. When Mario out grows the building towards the end, he destroys it in the same manor. When they return to the building after Koopa is defeated, the building has bandages on it as if it was repatched together quickly. How come the same wasn't done after King Koopa had out grown it moments before. The building shouldn't have been in perfect shape like it was when Mario and friends show up to talk to the doctor. Continuity -- Luigi is wearing a Japanese straw hat while he pulls the other three heroes in a cart at the beginning. Before Koopa shows up a massive quake from his paw steps causes the whole group of heroes to fall down. When Luigi gets back up he has his regular green cap back on with no sign of the straw hat he was wearing only a second before. + :One of the best macro episode made in my opinion. Has great growth moments, great rampaging moments, classic lines and truly captures the macro feel in every way. King Koopa's personality makes the moments even better. - :Annoying song in the middle of the episode that thankfully was edited out in the more recent video editions replaced with just instrumental music. A few continuity problems that could have easily been fixed. Silly ending that was more for laughs then logic. Some of the corny lines are just silly and grasping for humor. Category:King Koopa